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Oneness vs. The 1%: #VandanaShiva at the United Nations Office at Geneva

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Vandana Shiva | Ecofeminism and the decolonization of women, nature and the future

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Similar to the previous one, but with more focus on how Covid/pandemic could spur actions

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A Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair

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Imagining an alternative eco-marxist future

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A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

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Intuitively, we know that we cannot remain limber, give freely, or work through the muck when our emotional, physical, and spiritual reserves are depleted - yet late-stage capitalism continues to force many of us to continue running on empty. Instead of allowing each other to burn out, what if we devoted ourselves to relearning where resilience inherently lives in our bodies? This week's guest Nkem Ndefo explores resilience in conjunction with co-liberation and how our bodies are deep wells that are here to sustain us, as long as we listen to them. This work is not just for our wellbeing but is an important step in allowing us to engage in flexible visioning, grow our capacity for discomfort, and adequately prepare for transformation. Nkem is the founder and president of Lumos Transforms and creator of The Resilience Toolkit, a model that promotes embodied self-awareness and self-regulation in an ecologically sensitive framework and social justice context. Nkem is particularly interested in working alongside people most impacted by violence and marginalization.

Music by Harrison Foster, Marian McLaughlin, Ariana Saraha, and Emily Ritz.

Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.

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‎For The Wild: NKEM NDEFO on the Body as Compass on Apple Podcasts

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‎Intuitively, we know that we cannot remain limber, give freely, or work through the muck when our emotional, physical, and spiritual reserves are depleted - yet late-stage capitalism continues to force many of us to continue running on empty. Instead of allowing each other to burn out, what if we de...

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A nice answer to the whats next question

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solarpunkcast:

Angela Davis & Ursula K Le Guin, visionary women for a hopeful future

[image description:
A meme featuring two muscular people bringing their arms together in a powerful handshake. Each arm is labelled with a quote.

The first quote is from Angela Davis. It reads: "You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time."

The second quote is from Ursula K Le Guin. It reads: "You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere."
End description.]

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solarpunkcast: Angela Davis & Ursula K Le Guin, visionary women for a hopeful future [image description: A meme featuring two muscular people bringing their arms together in a powerful handshake. Each arm is labelled with a quote. The first quote is from Angela Davis.

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https://open.spotify.com/episode/188Db1wGLK2F7B0qWuN8Em

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Listen to this episode from The Future Is A Mixtape on Spotify. For this episode, Matt & Jesse build upon their prior discussion (Episode 026) of Erik Olin Wright's posthumous book, How to Be an Anticapitalist in the 21st Century, by mapping out how we might best choreograph the dance steps in making revolution fully realized.

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Podcast docu series about how the CIA engaged in psychological warfare through song writing, shortly after Cold War. Shows how much "pop culture" and "entertainment" can and are coopted by power.

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Listen to this episode from Wind of Change on Spotify. A power ballad helped bring down the Soviet Union. Was it written by the CIA? Journalist Patrick Radden Keefe investigates the secret history of Cold War espionage and heavy metal. Wind of Change is an Original Series from Pineapple Street Studios, Crooked Media and Spotify.

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Hey y’all - really interesting podcast about the concept of hell, but it touches on the events of 1800’s Russia and socialism and such. Interesting stuff. - Steph

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Between belief and unbelief, faith and doubt, certainty and uncertainty, there is space. Explore that space with Jon Steingard, formerly the singer of the Christian band Hawk Nelson. From deconstruction to decolonization, from purity to politics, from spirituality to psychology, this show invites you to set aside long held assumptions and fears, and participate in The Wonder and The Mystery of Being.

Between belief and unbelief, faith and doubt, certainty and uncertainty, there is space. Explore that space with Jon Steingard, formerly the singer of the Christian band Hawk Nelson. From deconstruction to decolonization, from purity to politics, from spirituality to psychology, this show invites you to set aside long held assumptions and fears, and participate in The Wonder and The Mystery of Being.

Helps me understand others

This podcast is helpful to me in my current season of life. I have a lot of friends who are walking away from Christianity and I'm trying to understand what they are going through. Even though I myself am not deconstructing my faith, this helps me to understand those that are. I can see the world from a different perspective and be a better friend. This is very helpful! Thank you. 😊

One of my favorite podcasts!

I heard of Jon through Instagram and upon hearing that he was launching this podcast, I was an instant subscriber! I highly recommend this for anyone who grew up with a Christian background, whether or not you still follow the faith today. Having gone through my own deconstruction journey, Jon's episodes offer a healthy and productive environment to discuss organized religion and spirituality as a whole.

Just listened to episode 10 and it was done so perfectly. Jon did a great job choosing guest speakers, transitioning between topics, and rotating between the speakers. Very professionally done, no rambling, honest and open communication. The quality is a 10/10 and the content is a 10/10. Cannot recommend it enough!

Great Interviewer

Jon connects with his guests at a personal level that allows the guests to be themselves in a safe environment. Well done Jon!

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‎The Wonder and The Mystery of Being on Apple Podcasts

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‎Between belief and unbelief, faith and doubt, certainty and uncertainty, there is space. Explore that space with Jon Steingard, formerly the singer of the Christian band Hawk Nelson. From deconstruction to decolonization, from purity to politics, from spirituality to psychology, this show invites yo...

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What it's about: At the end of the Civil War in 1865, the 13th amendment officially abolished slavery - but there was a catch. People who had committed a crime could theoretically be enslaved as part of their punishment. "13th" is a stunning documentary that explores the implications of this in the modern American penal system, building on the work of scholars like Michelle Alexander who wrote the landmark book on modern-day segregation in the criminal justice system, " The New Jim Crow." "13th" paints a vivid and disturbing picture of modern American institutionalized racism, and does so with testimony from those who found themselves caught in the system.

Why you should see it: The film tackles a broad issue, but presents compelling details, stories, and historical examples that help drive its grim point home. Although institutional racism easily fades from the national discourse, "13th" is important simply because it reminds us of the struggle African Americans still face every day.

What it's about: "Dirty Money" is a TV show all about corruption, corporate fraud, and the ways banks, companies, and individuals contribute to illicit activities around the world. From infamous pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli's antics to bank-financed drug and terror operations, this documentary series dives into a number of high-profile and disturbing financial crimes.

Why you should see it: This series educates viewers about how US law makes white collar crime possible, but feels like an action movie. At a time when government and business ethics are under renewed scrutiny, "Dirty Money" is an important watch for anyone hoping to understand the vast world of institutional corruption.

What it's about: An ambitious documentary in both scope and subject matter, "Mitt" is the result of filmmaker Greg Whiteley following around former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for six years, through both of his failed runs for president in 2008 and 2012. It is a deeply personal film, depicting Romney's personal ruminations during his campaigns, his family life during the hectic election cycles, and his wife's struggles with multiple sclerosis at the height of Romney's political life.

Why you should see it: Romney in many ways represents the Republican Party as it existed before Trump, and "Mitt" paints an intimate picture of his world. But even after the defeats presented in this film, Romney looks like he'll be back at it again - this time as a Senate candidate. "Mitt" is a crucial and remarkably in-depth look at Romney the man, and is essential for understanding the brand of American conservatism he represents.

What it's about: As the name implies, this is a film about former Democratic New York Rep. Anthony Weiner's dramatic fall from grace during his run for mayor of New York City in 2013. Weiner, who had already resigned from Congress in 2011 after sending illicit pictures to women outside of his marriage, came under fire for sending pictures again in 2013. "Weiner" documents the consequences of this second episode, and is sometimes funny, sometimes humanizing, but mostly just really, really sad.

Why you should see it: This film shows Weiner in all of his bombastic, deeply flawed glory. The second-hand embarrassment the viewer feels for Weiner throughout the film is worth a watch alone, and is made all the more disturbing knowing that Weiner only truly hit rock bottom after the movie's conclusion. In 2016, he sent sexually explicit texts for a third time - to a minor.

More: Features Politics Slideshow Netflix Documentaries

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13 documentaries on Netflix that will make you smarter about politics

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What it's about: At the end of the Civil War in 1865, the 13th amendment officially abolished slavery - but there was a catch. People who had committed a crime could theoretically be enslaved as part of their punishment.

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Socialism has gone mainstream in American politics, but it remains deeply controversial. While some believe it offers an appealing solution to the country's woes, for others it conjures up fearful imagery of authoritarian regimes.

The new CBSN Originals documentary, "Speaking Frankly | Socialism," explores the resurgent interest in socialism and the culture wars surrounding its role in America today. [Watch the video in the player above.]

"The democratic socialist movement is being driven by millennials, zoomers, younger people," says Jabari Brisport, a Brooklyn teacher who embraces the socialist label and is running as a Democrat for a New York State Senate seat. "Younger people are interested in socialism because we can see so clearly the failings of capitalism."

A 2019 Pew Research Center survey found half of young adults under 30 expressed positive views of socialism - nearly as many as the 52% who felt positively about capitalism. Membership in the Democratic Socialists of America has jumped from 6,500 to 70,000 over the last six years.

But Maria Fernanda Bello, an activist with Young Americans Against Socialism, sees the trouble that's gripped her native Venezuela as a warning. "Socialists are always going to promise you free tuition, free health care, free everything, but they will never promise you freedom," she said.
CBSN Originals presents "Speaking Frankly | Socialism" the free CBS News app on your mobile or streaming device. CBSN streaming is available on all major platforms, including iOS, Android, Roku, Amazon, Apple, Samsung and Pluto. is available to stream now in the video player above. It premieres on Sunday, September 20 at 8 p.m., 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. ET.

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New documentary explores why a growing number of Americans are turning to socialism

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Socialism has gone mainstream in American politics, but it remains deeply controversial. While some believe it offers an appealing solution to the country's woes, for others it conjures up fearful imagery of authoritarian regimes. The new CBSN Originals documentary, "Speaking Frankly | Socialism," explores the resurgent interest in socialism and the culture wars surrounding its role in America today.

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Fast deals. Fancy cars. Wads of cash. Rich brokers. Unscrupulous executives. What do these things have in common? They're often found in some of the biggest blockbuster hits about the financial industry. Hollywood has a long history of sensationalizing the industry and the professionals who take part in it. If you're not convinced, watch films like " Wall Street" and " The Wolf of Wall Street."

While these types of movies definitely offer high entertainment value, they don't necessarily provide an accurate depiction of what it's really like to be a professional in the world of finance. Instead, they tend to provide a skewed view of the financial sector. But there are big-screen movies that actually try to show how life really is for financial professionals and their clients. Here, we take a more realistic approach that writers and directors explore through documentary film. For current finance professionals looking to increase their skills, or for aspiring professionals looking to break into the industry, finance documentaries are a great way to gain insight and knowledge. The following is a list of 10 of the most important documentaries that should be on your must-watch list.

1. "Inside Job" (2010)

"Inside Job" is one of the most well-done and informative documentaries on the 2008 housing and banking financial crisis. The movie won the 2010 Oscar for the best documentary picture.

Broken down into five parts, the film takes the viewer through the U.S. policy changes and banking practices that led to the global financial crisis. It begins by highlighting how the economy was set up to fail, how the bubble grew between 2001 and 2007, how the crisis struck in 2008, who was accountable for the crisis, before wrapping up the aftermath.

This is one of the most important documentaries for finance professionals. Through an understanding of the history of one of the largest financial crises, it's possible to learn from past mistakes to foresee when something like this can happen again and prevent it from happening.

2. "Trader" (1987)

The film "Trader" follows trader Paul Tudor Jones, showing him at his best as well as his worst. Jones, a hedge fund manager, accurately predicted the 1987 economic downturn based on both intuition and Elliott Wave graphs.

While Jones is extremely intelligent, he's also extremely superstitious. This highlights the fact that many people within the investment finance industry rely on luck just as much as they do on skill and analytics. Sometimes it takes guts along with analysis to make the correct investment decision.

The documentary also follows Jones as he donates his time and money to help New York City children graduate from high school. This underscores the importance of giving back to the community, rather than succumbing to greed.

3. "25 Million Pounds" (1996)

Watch "25 Million Pounds" to learn the true story of Nick Leeson, a British trader who started his career as a Morgan Stanley clerk and ended breaking the law as a rogue trader who brought down Barings, an old British bank. This bank held money for the high-powered elite, including the Queen herself. The true story was so compelling that it also inspired the film "Rogue Trader," which starred Ewan McGregor.

Through interviews with Leeson in the early 1990s, "25 Million Pounds" allows finance professionals a chance to peer into the mind of someone who dealt with dishonest traders and even committed fraud himself. The interviews highlight Leeson's relationship with the trader Kweku Adoboli, who managed to take over $2 billion from UBS.

4. "Breaking the Bank" (2009)

PBS has a series of documentaries produced under the Frontline banner including "Breaking the Bank." Viewers are able to get an understanding of the American banking crisis that led to nearly $500 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds distributed to American banks because of their reckless management. These funds injected cash into the American banking system, ensuring that none of the largest institutions would fail.

While some argue that the bailout that saved the large American banks from collapsing was necessary, others counter, saying the program subverted free enterprise and capitalism. Understanding the intricacies of the American banking crisis gives finance professionals a better understanding of the interwoven economy and how the free market reacts to a crisis.

5. "The Ascent of Money" (2008)

Finance professionals interested in the complete financial history of the world should definitely put "The Ascent of Money" on their list of documentaries to watch. Historian Niall Ferguson takes viewers through a complete history of the financial world, from the ancient city of Babylon all the way to the 2008 global financial crisis.

Understanding the deep financial history of the world gives finance professionals a greater perspective and understanding of how the finance world operates. "The Ascent of Money" tries to accomplish this by highlighting milestones such as the Babylonian futures contracts and Francisco Pizarro's exploitation of the Cerro Rico de Potosí-a mine that yielded silver for Europe.

6. "Commanding Heights" (2002)

"Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy" provides a thorough understanding of the world economy for financial professionals. This film highlights the birth of globalization. Similar to the deep history highlighted in the previous film, this documentary delves deeper into the beginning of globalization by first taking the viewer into Russia and behind the Iron Curtain.

From there, "Commanding Heights" presses on to highlight events such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank's response to the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The film continues its journey through the end of the 20th century when deregulation became prevalent.

7. "Life and Debt"

"Life and Debt" is a documentary film that highlights how indebtedness makes a bad situation worse for small countries. Through an understanding of the European Union's rescue of floundering countries such as Greece and Portugal, the film gives finance professionals food for thought about the benefits and drawbacks of bailing out entire countries through debt lending. "Life and Debt" also takes a closer look at the effects of national indebtedness and IMF policy on ordinary citizens and local businesses.

8. Other Frontline Documentaries

Similar to "Inside Job" and Frontline's"Breaking the Bank," these documentaries help highlight the 2008 financial crisis, the largest recession since the Great Depression. "Inside Job" does a great job of giving a high-level overview of the 2008 crisis while also providing entertainment value, but these PBS documentaries really dig into the causes and effects.

9. "The Warning" (2009)

For finance professionals, "The Warning" shows that it's possible to foresee a financial crisis and work to keep it from happening. This film takes a look at the 2008 financial crisis, but it does so from a different angle. It picks up the story of Brooksley Born, the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), who urged for tighter regulation that could have mitigated the crisis.

10. "Freakonomics: The Movie" (2010)

While "Freakonomics"isn't strictly a movie about the financial industry itself, it brings to light a lot of interesting theories about why people behave the way they do. By taking seemingly random data points, the documentary shows how causality and correlation can be made between the two. For finance professionals, it's extremely important to understand what drives people.

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10 Must Watch Documentaries for Finance Professionals

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Fast deals. Fancy cars. Wads of cash. Rich brokers. Unscrupulous executives. What do these things have in common? They're often found in some of the biggest blockbuster hits about the financial industry. Hollywood has a long history of sensationalizing the industry and the professionals who take part in it.

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https://youtu.be/1Wb6P8lI8xY

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"It is absurd that we are capable of witnessing a 40,000-year-old system of gender oppression begin to dissolve before our eyes and yet still seeing the abolition of a 200-year-old economic system as an unrealistic utopia.” (Paul Mason - Postcapitalism)

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"Cultural Marxism" as pejorative and conspiracy theory

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"Cultural Marxism" as pejorative and conspiracy theory

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Unsurprising connects to Jerry Falwell, ALEC, and other right wing groups. https://youtu.be/X98uzqpQ3JM

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The word Victorian tends to evoke old-fashioned ideas: women confined in corsets, strict gender roles, and a prudishness about all things sexual. In a world where conspicuous consumerism and self-expression rule, these nineteenth-century notions of self-restraint and self-denial seem hopelessly outdated.

But the Victorian ethos is not dead, not by a long shot.

It lives on, manifesting itself in our contemporary upper middle class's behavior. While some aspects have gone the way of the waistcoat, the belief that the bourgeoisie holds a place of moral superiority over the other classes persists.

Today, spin classes, artisanal food, and the college application process have replaced Sunday promenades, evening lectures, and weekly salons. But make no mistake, they serve the same purpose: transforming class privilege into individual virtue, thereby shoring up social dominance.

Historian Peter Gay used "Victorian" to broadly describe the culture of the educated upper middle classes of Western Europe and the United States in the long nineteenth century. Of course, they held much more complicated beliefs about sex, gender, and family than we paint them to have.

Victorians may have enforced a strict moral code, but they talked about sex all the time, almost obsessively. As Gay pointed out, wealthy couples often wrote love letters with more steam than a Newcomen engine.

And despite stereotypes of stern, authoritarian fathers, this period ushered in contemporary notions of parenting. A real man not only provided for his family, but also took an active interest in his children's emotional well-being.

Although the nineteenth-century upper middle class was not nearly as prudish and stern as we imagine, it did adhere to strict behavioral codes. These normative codes reflected the period's shifting class structure and the ascendant bourgeoisie's desire to assert its moral superiority over the nobility, using virtue to challenge the old aristocracy's place at the center of political, social, and cultural life. While the sons of the gentry hunted and dined, the sons of bankers and lawyers worked, built families, and educated themselves.

In Germany, the key word is almost untranslatable: Bildung, which means education in the form of personal cultivation and improvement. That idea, expressed in different languages in different nations, tied this rising class together across national borders. Self-improvement differentiated them from the decadent 1 percent.

For example, listening to music became an educational - rather than entertaining - experience. The eighteenth century's classical chamber music functioned as a pleasant soundtrack for aristocratic soirees. At concert halls, the nobility would canoodle in their boxes, only half paying attention to the performers.

But when the rising capitalist class attended concerts, they did not gab away in a convivial fashion: they sat still and demanded silence, in order to concentrate on the music.

German Victorians coined the term Sitzfleisch - sitting flesh - to describe the muscle control required for sitting absolutely still during a concert performance. Even coughs and sneezes had to be stifled, lest they break anyone's concentration and derail self-improvement.

The quest for Bildung saturated daily life as well. Wealthy young women, who could not hope for any career beyond wife and mother, learned at least one other language and took piano and singing lessons. Men often spent their evenings attending lectures or participating in civic organizations.

For this dedication to pay off, however, these enriched Victorians had to display it, making their difference from both the wealthier and the poorer obvious to all.

They spent a fearsome percentage of their incomes on home décor that showed affluence, taste, and modesty simultaneously. They knew that they had made it once they had a salon - a room in the house devoted entirely to entertaining guests that the residents would never enter alone. On Sundays, the entire family would promenade through the park.

In fact, across Europe and the United States, wealthy families pushed for the construction of more and more public parks. But, in line with their values, these spaces were not intended as commons that anyone could enjoy but as stages to show off their Sunday best.

New York's Central Park, for example, forbade the public from going on the grass or playing sports. Children had to produce a "certificate of good behavior" from their school before they were allowed on playgrounds. Beer sales were banned on Sundays.

The park wasn't for working-class leisure, but discipline. There, laborers learned to appreciate the proper way to enjoy the park: the stroll. Fredrick Law Olmsted's early park served as a massive temple to the Victorian notion of nature as a site of improvement.

While we don't often see men in top hats and women in petticoats parading their children on Sundays, parks remain a place to display virtue and discipline: contemporary fitness culture perfectly embodies the nineteenth-century ethos of improvement and discipline.

Victorians were famously averse to physical activity - which was for the proles - and they saw carrying extra weight as a marker of class and respectability. Fitness and sport began to infiltrate middle-class life in the twentieth century, and today serves the same function as the promenade.

This first struck me nine years ago. I was living in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and enjoyed riding my bike as a way to explore an unfamiliar place. One day, I decided to visit East Grand Rapids, a very wealthy suburb, because it has a bike path around Reeds Lake.

Once I arrived, I immediately realized that I was the only person not wearing exercise clothing. This is not to say everyone was exercising - most were out for a stroll, much like their predecessors - but they were dressed for the gym. The other cyclists all wore tight-fitting spandex outfits, as if they were at the starting line of the Tour de France.

These clothes were sending a message: "Make no mistake, we are not walking or riding bikes for transportation. This is exercise." The wealthy residents of East Grand Rapids had turned a walk in the park into a fitness routine; their athleisure wear proclaimed that this activity was an act of improvement.

Current exercise trends, like hot yoga, spin, and CrossFit, all demonstrate a commitment to self-denial and self-discipline, values much praised by the Victorians. Marathon running has become the ultimate signifier: competitors can post photos on social medi a to prove to everyone that they have tortured their bodies in a highly virtuous - and not at all kinky - fashion.

This seeps over into everyday activities as well. Trader Joe's and Whole Foods are filled with people dressed in workout gear with no sweat in sight. This clothing marks its wearers as the type of people who care for their bodies, even when they aren't exercising. Yoga pants and running shoes display virtue just as clearly as the nineteenth-century wives' corseted dresses did.

Being fit now indexes class, saturating both fitness and food culture. As calories have become cheaper, obesity has changed from being a sign of wealth to a sign of moral failure. Today, being unhealthy functions as a hallmark of the poor's cupidity the same way working-class sexual mores were viewed in the nineteenth century.

Both lines of thinking assert that the lower classes cannot control themselves, so they deserve exactly what they have and nothing more. No need, then, for higher wages or subsidized health care. After all, the poor will just waste it on cigarettes and cheeseburgers.

Both then and now, these purported health differences register disgust with working-class bodies. In The Road To Wigan Pier, George Orwell discussed his late-Victorian upbringing, writing that he was trained to believe "that there was something subtly repulsive about a working-class body." In Orwell's time, soap - not fitness - made that distinction; he was taught that, in his words, "the lower classes smell."

Nowadays, the Internet registers cross-class horror on websites like People of Wal-Mart. Instead of being repulsed by the "great unwashed," the modern Victorians blanch at the "great overfed."

While the nineteenth-century bourgeoisie saw full figures not as embarrassments to be eradicated, but as comforting signs of their prosperity, their spiritual descendants are obsessed with eating the right kinds of food. In the last fifteen years, organic food has gone from fringe phenomenon to absolute necessity.

Consider the gluten-free movement - those who choose to eliminate gluten from their diet, not those who have celiac disease and must eschew wheat entirely. A few years ago, I joked that finding a gluten-free resident in my rural Nebraska hometown would have been akin to finding the collected works of Peter Kropotkin in the local library. Now "gluten- free" food appears on nearly every local supermarket shelf.

This food discipline is a form of virtuous self-denial that would have made the Victorians proud. If only my grandparents had lived long enough to realize that growing their own potatoes and cucumbers made them high class, not hicks.

A similar dynamic infects family life today. Like their ancestors, today's upper middle classes place a great deal of emphasis on the family. Although nineteenth-century authoritarianism has fallen away, this period first saw childhood as a distinct and special period in life. Parents acted accordingly, setting aside nurseries in their homes for their children.

Child-rearing practices get more onerous with each passing year, demanding that parents exercise extreme discipline and self-denial. A recent book - All Joy And No Fun - sounds like music to a Victorian's ears. What could be more frivolous and less educational than fun? There's no time for it amidst the demands of modern parenting.

Mothers must breast-feed for an extended period, provide only organic food to their children, and keep screen time to nil. Slip-ups indicate failure. This represents perhaps the clearest link between Victorian values then and now: both restrict women and reinforce gender hierarchy.

It is hardly coincidental that these new expectations require money and time. A working mother who has to juggle multiple service-sector jobs will find it much harder to pump breast milk at work than a woman in an office job. (Not to mention the disparity in parental leave between white- and blue-collar workers.)

The moralistic imperatives now attached to breast-feeding allow working-class women - who are less likely to breast-feed - to be judged moral failures. Indeed, public battles over breast-feeding restrictions rarely extend to demands for better lactation access for working-class women.

Intensive parenting expectations continue well after children leave infancy. Young children are encouraged to participate in costly club sports, and parents to give up their free time to support them. These activities take time and money, two resources working people lack.

This proliferation of organized activities represents a form of improvement: a child's free time is now completely subsumed by Bildung. And the ability to provide these opportunities to kids is portrayed as a reflection of a family's morality, not their economic situation. Just as Victorian women had to learn to play the piano and speak Italian - showing off a refinement unavailable to the other levels of society - modern kids play soccer, learn Mandarin, and volunteer at a local charity.

But the capstone of the modern quest for Bildung is surely the college application process. There is no good nineteenth-century analogue for this ridiculous new ritual, although Dickens would've been perfectly able to satirize its inherent absurdity: Millions act as if a system weighted very heavily toward privilege is in fact some kind of meritocracy, and that a person's worth can be judged by the prestige of the school where they have been accepted.

Most Americans who go to college only apply to a couple of schools. But upper-class children take standardized test prep classes, intern or travel over the summer to have material for their entrance essays, and often apply to a dozen schools, all to maximize their chances at getting into the one with the best name. Parents - no matter their children's actual intellectual capacities - can then rest easy in the knowledge they are of a better sort than the plebs who attend Directional State U.

Today's upper middle class maintains the fiction of a meritocratic society, just as the Victorians did. This story allows them to shore up their economic position behind the backs of workers, who are taught that their health problems and dismal career prospects represent individual faults, not systemic dysfunction.

Of course, exercising, eating organic food, and pushing children to use their spare time usefully are not inherently bad things. However, they become markers of bourgeois values when they are marshaled to assert one class's moral superiority over another and to justify social inequality. It was just as obnoxious in the nineteenth century as it is today.

We should care about health, food, and education. But instead of seeing them as ways to prop up class dominance, we should improve them for everyone. Imagine if all of the energy used to get mediocre, upper-class children into prestigious colleges was redirected into making higher education more accessible and affordable across the board. Imagine if access to healthy food for all was prioritized over attaining status through buying the most virtuous products. Imagine, in short, what our world would look like if socialist values - not Victorian ones - dominated.

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The word Victorian tends to evoke old-fashioned ideas: women confined in corsets, strict gender roles, and a prudishness about all things sexual. In a world where conspicuous consumerism and self-expression rule, these nineteenth-century notions of self-restraint and self-denial seem hopelessly outdated. But the Victorian ethos is not dead, not by a long shot.

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MSU Spartans, Presented by Rocket Mortgage

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MSU Spartans, Presented by Rocket Mortgage

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The basketball team of a PUBLICLY RUN, State University - sponsored by Rocket Mortgage. Amazing. Cant make it up!

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In an age where sponsor patches are on every NBA uniform and the Nike swoosh has even hit MLB jerseys, maybe it was only a matter of time before companies started pushing for the actual names of major American sports teams.

Michigan State entered new territory on Thursday by announcing a massive expansion in its endorsement deal with Rocket Mortgage, including a name change for its men's basketball team on campus.

Yes, rather than call them the Michigan State Spartans, the team will now receive the following treatment in East Lansing's Breslin Center:

Under the new five-year deal, Detroit-based Rocket Mortgage will be the presenting sponsor of the famed men's basketball team which will now be known throughout the Breslin Center as, "MSU Spartans Presented by Rocket Mortgage."

The MSU Spartans Presented by Rocket Mortgage, feel the hype.

Here's how Tom Izzo reacted to the news through the Spartans:

"Rocket Mortgage has been a valued partner for years with Michigan State and we are excited that they are continuing to support our program into the future," said Michigan State Men's Basketball Coach Tom Izzo. "As presenting sponsor of our season, their presence will be an asset as we compete for championships."

Rocket Mortgage's relationship with the program comes via the co-founder of its parent company. Quicken Loans chairman Dan Gilbert, who also owns the Cleveland Cavaliers, is a graduate of Michigan State.

Obviously, broadcasters and other outlets will, in all likelihood, continue to call them the Spartans going forward, though some Big Ten teams may have a little fun with their rivals' new title. Still, it's wild to see a legitimate college basketball team, a power program no less, give up its very name to the advertising gods. Especially since we're talking about a team ostensibly composed of amateurs.

It's also worth noting that this isn't the first time private businesses have made their way into the names of sports teams. It's not too rare a practice in soccer, most notably used by Red Bull to use the teams it owns (e.g. the New York Red Bulls, Red Bull Leipzig) to promote their energy drink. Japanese and Korean baseball teams also often feature business in their names (Rakuten Golden Eagles, Kia Tigers).

In all of those cases, however, the business in question actually owned the team rather than giving them millions of dollars to slap their name onto a scoreboard and promotional teams. In that respect, the MSU Spartans Presented by Rocket Mortgage are doing something akin to a little league team getting some help from a local business.
More from Yahoo Sports:

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Michigan State announces basketball team will now be called 'MSU Spartans Presented by Rocket Mortgage'

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In an age where sponsor patches are on every NBA uniform and the Nike swoosh has even hit MLB jerseys, maybe it was only a matter of time before companies started pushing for the actual names of major American sports teams. Michigan State entered new territory on Thursday by announcing a massive expansion in its endorsement deal with Rocket Mortgage, including a name change for its men's basketball team on campus.

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Quick 17 min on the intrinsic tie between racism and capitalism

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Geographies of Racial Capitalism with Ruth Wilson Gilmore – An Antipode Foundation film

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How mutual aid groups are stepping in where government didn't

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How mutual aid groups are stepping in where government didn't

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/03/nyregion/covid-19-mutual-aid-nyc.html

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Oh man, I'm in love with Padlet I think. This is EVERYTHING haha!

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Oh man, I'm in love with Padlet I think. This is EVERYTHING haha!

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Either Is or Steph I think

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Ben Folds - Fred Jones, Pt. 2 (Live In Perth, 2005)

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This girl!

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info@cgnyc.church
CGNYC2021

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Gotta see...

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Gotta listen.... via Comrade Rob

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Listen to this episode from Bad Faith on Spotify. This week, we tackle a subject close to Brie's heart, and by heart, we mean the amygdala, where anger is born: Student debt. Conversations about student debt are often stuck in the primordial stage.